whatsapp is owned by meta(facebook). I refuse to use their products. When they purchased whatsapp I immediately stopped using it and uninstalled it
Stallman would be proud. U did the right thing.
Do you have relatives or friends that you can only contact via WhatsApp? If no, then it’s not really a big deal. It might pose a problem if you meet new people, where I’m from we usually only exchange WhatsApp/Instagram info in order to stay in touch.
Install Signal and tell your friends to do so as well unless they want to use SMS to contact you. If they refuse to use Signal in order to stay in touch, you should ask why. My guess is that those people are exactly the type you should have blocked years ago, so this is also a good opportunity to clean your address book and start from a clean slate.
Asked, and only 2 of my friends installed signal
Did the others give any reasons? Did you tell them why you prefer signal over WhatsApp?
Most of my friends are on Signal, fortunately. However it can be tricky to ask someone you just met to install a new app in order to stay in touch. Signal is still quite niche, WhatsApp is just something that the overwhelming majority of people have an account on, so it’s convenient. I wish it wasn’t the case, but that’s just how it is. Also I don’t feel that you should block, or avoid people based on their social media choice, it’s as dumb and pathetic as the blue/green bubble craze.
maybe give a bit of context?
Meta is a gigantic spyware,making Tik Tok look not that bad
That said, the difficulty is to find the right balance between privacy and social life.
I’m seeing more and more people using Signal, so that’s pretty neat. I encouraged all of my close friends to make the switch 2 years ago, but I’m constantly meeting new people (usually tech-savvy folks) using it too.
Depends. Do the people around you or your friends/family heavily use WhatsApp to stay in touch (Like, to the point of if you don’t have and use the thing, you’ve basically got no way to contact people)? If yes, well, I wouldn’t go as far as to call you stupid, but you did probably make your life harder for yourself unless you’re a hermit.
Sometimes ya just gotta bite the bullet and understand that absolutes aren’t possible. Or, they are possible, but they’re more impractical than they’re worth
I removed it for years but eventually had to get it back.
I used a spare phone though with non of my contacts in it and never connect it to my home wifi.
Nop, not stupid. I’ve managed to get almost all conatcts to signal, butnalas, some distant relatives still have wa. (It hasn’t made a beep for months now)
